More than a week after St. Louis lost the Rams after 21 seasons, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon fired back at the NFL, via David Hunn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Part of the task force that assembled a plan for a new stadium in St. Louis, Nixon charged the NFL with making up reasons to move the team to Los Angeles.
“It was very disappointing that we followed the guidelines, did what folks said, and that wasn’t enough here,” Nixon said. “When you look at everything that was done, we met the guidelines.”
The league countered by noting how much time the league spent helping cities plan their stadiums and “took a tremendous amount of information into account before making their decision.”
Stan Kroenke‘s Inglewood stadium cost has now risen to a stadium-record $2.66 billion, Hunn reports, and Nixon remains focused on trying to recoup the $16MM St. Louis spent on planning for the Rams’ prospective next riverfront stadium.
Here is the latest from the Western divisions.
- The Chiefs will begin marketing in the St. Louis area in an attempt to reach out to the fans left without a local team by the Rams’ exit, according to Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star. Although St. Louis is a baseball-centric city, Chiefs president Mark Donovan said the team will strategically go about seeking out new fans on the eastern side of the state that are now without a football team. Believe it or not, Donovan said Indianapolis has reached out to St. Louis about welcoming Rams fans under the Colts umbrella, and the Chiefs are hoping more of their contests will be available regionally in St. Louis now that 16 new time slots should be available.
- In an expansive look at assessing which free agents the Chiefs will keep and in what order they should address doing so, Paylor lists Eric Berry and Derrick Johnson as the team’s top two free agents to consider keeping. Tamba Hali, Sean Smith and Jaye Howard round out the top five, with Joel Corry of CBSSports.com painting Smith as a highest-bidder defector. “He’s also a guy that was in the worst free agent cornerback market in recent memory (in 2013). Nobody his year got over $6 million a year, so he’s not taking a discount,” Corry told Paylor. … I think he’s wearing silver and black next year. He’s a big corner, and (defensive coordinator) Ken Norton comes from Seattle, and they love big corners.” As for Berry, Corry expects the 27-year-old comeback player of the year candidate to be the top safety on the market and command a guarantee in the neighborhood of those given to Devin McCourty ($28.5MM) and Earl Thomas ($27.72MM). The former agent also notes the Chiefs, as they did with Jeremy Maclin last year, can backload the deal and give Berry around a $3.5MM cap figure in 2016 in an effort to help the team work toward keeping some of its defensive stars.
- 49ers GM Trent Baalke effectively pumped the brakes on those assuming a Chip Kelly–Colin Kaepernick union’s too promising to pass up, according to a CSNCalifornia.com report. “We’ve got two guys. Blaine (Gabbert) stepped in and did some awfully good things,” Baalke told 95.7 The Game in a radio interview. “Obviously, Colin has done a lot of good things through his career here. And Chip’s looking forward to getting together with both of them, and getting them on the field, and putting them into his system, and going to work.” Kelly’s already reached out to Kaepernick in an introductory manner, but Baalke isn’t ready to write off the 26-year-old Gabbert yet. Gabbert finished his audition with 10 touchdown passes, seven interceptions and a 63.1% completion rate. It marked the only time in his career the former first-round pick connected on more than 59% of his throws. Should the 49ers keep the 28-year-old Kaepernick on their roster past April 1, the embattled quarterback will have a team-high $15.89MM cap number. Gabbert’s set to make $1.75MM in base salary in 2016.
When you start to list them, the Chiefs really do have a lot of solid free agents. I thought they might try to lock up some of these guys earlier, given that they got bitten by waiting until the last minute to extend Justin Houston.
Please just let Kaep go. I believe Gabbert made strides last year. Get him a healthy Hyde and a O Line and that fast pace offense I think he will be even better. Save a lot of money doing it that way also so we can get some O Line and defensive help
Kap for manziel?
Hue loves kap and niners looked at manziel and so did the Eagles when chip was there so could be a win-win
• 49ers GM Trent Baalke effectively pumped the brakes on those assuming a Chip Kelly–Colin Kaepernick union’s too promising to pass up,
—-
Been saying it. The only reason you bring up Gabbert in that press conference considering the salaries is that you’re getting rid of the guy with the bigger one. Anyone thinking it’s a motivational thing is clueless. Motivation for what? In the words of his daughter to Greg Roman, they don’t want him no more. They’ll try to trade him for a higher pick (maybe Cleveland is a dancing partner to swap) or just cut him and draft Goff if they get that pick.
I do agree. I’ve been saying they will keep Gabbert, he’s the easy pick to stay with less money to paid to and trade Kaep. Draft a QB in the first round and let him sit for a year unless Gabbert absolutely sucks. And unless they fix that line he will. That line is horrible. I hope Staley is back and I hope Anthony Davis is keeping his word and coming back this year healthy. That right there is a good start. With the money you save from Kaep you better go get some O Linemen or you’re going to have some mad SF fans and blaming it all on Chip. I like the Kelly hire btw but I will keep preaching O Line until my face is blue because we need O Line help BADLY
I consider Kaep and gabbert the same person, considering Gabbert did way more for the 49ers, has less money to his name, and doesn’t have pressure on his shoulders I would release Kaep and keep the younger gabbert
The 49ers don’t have any real salary commitments beyond kaep. Would be smart to keep both and let then compete for job, or use both in the fast paced offense.